I have to make a couple decisions about what I'm going to do, fitness-wise, for the rest of the summer. I'd like to sign up for another belly-dancing class and pole-dancing class. I'd also like to get my own pole. Altogether that'd end up being about $400. Much as I want to, it's hard to justify spending that when there's so much free/cheap stuff going on this summer. I also have:

Parkour, both with the group and on my own = $0
Bouldering with a friend from pole = $5 each time
Ballroom dancing with Dad = $0
Bollywood dancing with friends = $0
Martial arts/calisthenics with friends = $0
Gym = $0
Hiking, biking, other outside stuff = $0
Archery = $0
Practicing everything I already know at home = $0

Once it turns colder I won't be doing the outside stuff, but I'll probably be spending a lot more time on Bollywood. So...yeah. Damn. I really have no excuse to get a pole do I? Especially since, while I like pole enough that I stay after class as long as they let me every week and I'm not bad at it, I'm not particularly good at it either. And if you forced me to choose between Bollywood and pole, or parkour and pole, pole would lose in a heartbeat. Oh pole. I had such high hopes for you. But you are such a damned expensive hobby. I may need to bid you farewell, at least for now.





Question - is it possible to use a muscle hard enough to bruise it? Cause I have bruises on the insides of my elbows, and I didn't hit them, but they hurt when I press them, and I'm pretty sure those are muscles that got blasted in pole last night. Hmm.
In somewhat related news, my inadvertent 5-day hiatus from exercise made my shoulder feel much better. And then I went to pole and the gym, and now the pain is back with a vengeance. I think it's been about a month now. Clearly something needs to be done. Damned if I know what though.

Through an incredibly convoluted series of shift changes, Adam and I suddenly have Friday off together. This almost never happens. So naturally I've decided we need to take a mini road trip. We'd like to play outside, but the gods continue to spit on upstate NY (which I really never cared about until starting parkour), which makes life difficult. So I'm considering going to this kickass parkour training centre in Toronto. http://www.themonkeyvault.com/ I'd been planning to hold off on going because I'm still so beginner that it would be largely wasted on me, but I'm feeling slightly cocky because when I went to the gym today for the first time since starting parkour/pole, it was absurd how much stronger my pullup muscles were. I think it's because when you're in the gym and a weight is really heavy, you generally go down so that you can get more reps and keep good form. When hauling yourself up a wall, you do whatever you can to get over that damn wall, no matter how hard it is. Apparently this is a much more effective way to build muscle! In checking the Monkey Vault out further I found these vids, including the new Best Game Ever - Parkour Dodgeball. http://www.vimeo.com/2903461 The other vids are good too, especially the girls and the Mirror's Edge.

I absolutely love watching videos of traceuses, because it's such a different atmosphere than the guys (this is also true of martial arts). Guys tend to get macho and competitive, and even if they're being supportive it can come off as condescending. They're more serious, and any humor tends to be very Jackass-style. One gets the impression that they're on the verge of marking their territory.
Girls, on the other hand, become bosom buddies as soon as they start doing a typically male dominated activity together. They clap and cheer for each other, they giggle about everything - all in all it feels more like a slumber party than something that's almost definitely going to result in bodily harm.
This happens with video games too. If a guy is playing a guy or a girl is playing a guy, they'll generally trash or mock each other. If a girl plays a girl, they'll giggle and compliment each other's moves. Girls are weird.
Anyways, my point was, when I watch videos of guys tricking, it generally leaves me in awe. When I watch girls tricking, it makes me want to clap and squee when they do something well, and then I want to dive into the vid and make them teach me. This is why, though I wish more girls would just come out and play with the guys, I really wish there were girl groups for parkour and martial arts. Girls just play better together.

I think I got off topic. Actually, I'm not entirely sure what the topic was to begin with...
Well whatever. Have some more links!

Endless parkour goodness. http://www.americanparkour.com/ Anyone want to help me make these? http://www.americanparkour.com/content/view/890/317/ And by help, I mean you make them and I'll pay you?

Excellent MovNat article. http://www.menshealth.com/cda/article.do?site=MensHealth&channel=fitness&category=motivation&conitem=7d7caa4e23adf110VgnVCM10000013281eac____&page=1

Pandora popping http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DiAabNw7mek
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HIjQUvkQdBg
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_t1miBh9jSY

Bhangra rap remix http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0tha2BpRaaA

For when pullups get boring. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T9QeitaeBrY
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iFDat7vb5P4&NR=1

http://www.fiveten.com Footwear>Freerunning has a cute vid.


I'll leave you with a story from my wonderful playmate Lefty.
(on the phone)
Me: Parkour is taking over my braaain. I'm constantly wanting to climb everything now. We have all this giant art scattered around Rochester that I never really noticed before, but now I'm like "I could totally jump through that!" and Adam's like "NO Rachel, no playing on the art!"
Lefty: I totally know what you mean! Once I was in this city that had these huge shuttlecocks, like in badminton, as outside art. They looked perfect for climbing, so I kicked one to see how sturdy it was. Suddenly this voice comes on over loudspeakers - "Please do not kick the shuttlecocks."

Oh parkour. You're going to get us arrested. But I love you anyways.

My favorite band for a long time, my first concert, and my gateway band, was Moxy Fruvous way back in 9th grade. Since then they've broken up and I've found tons more music and gone to loads of concerts, eventually expanding into some international music and dancing. I was wandering YouTube looking for some bhangra music today when I stumbled onto http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K2fijJhkUIw
The Bhangramuffin star joined host Jian Ghomeshi in Studio Q for three songs.
Wow. Hi Jian! Long time no see! Man that's weird. Nice to see he's still being musical though.

Brave and the Bold E16 (S2 E3): Night of the Huntress is, without a doubt, the most brain-breakingly wonderful episode of any animated show ever. It might even be as good as Superman driving a Cadillac across a desert and then becoming the leader of a wolf pack.
It's that fucking awesome.

My one issue with it was Huntress flirting with Bats so much. It was too similar to Black Canary (who made my brain melt) and OOC. I'll forgive them though, because it worked with the episode as a whole.

Oh, let's be honest. I'll forgive anyone who makes a Batmobile mecha damn near anything.

Is anybody going to Dragon Con?

Yesterday I went to my first parkour...I'm not sure what to call it. It's not a formal paid class or even a club, it's just a guy who's really good at parkour who gets a bunch of people together to teach and practice. So I went to that. It was awesome! The teacher is great, he's really good at giving you the advice you're ready for and encouraging you without pushing you too hard. It's a very welcoming group - even though I was one of only 3 girls (vs about 20 guys) and a newbie, people were cool to me and were happy to volunteer advice. There was one girl in particular who adopted me and taught me a few tricks. With her advice I managed to get over the wall! I had gotten up onto my elbows on my own, but was stuck. Turns out that if you stick your ass out and scramble your feet up a little higher, it tips your gravity forward so that you can lift up onto your hands and from there get onto the wall. It was probably the least graceful wall mount ever, but I still got lots of cheers and it felt fantastic. :) Lefty and I had played at that park earlier in the week and I'd utterly failed to get more than a cat grab, so obviously the group was very helpful.

I suck at vaults though. :D Apparently it's easier for me to fling myself at a concrete wall than to fling myself at a wooden park bench. Must practice. Anyone know of a good place to practice other than Manhattan Sq. Park (or as Lefty calls it, the nest for baby Nightwings)? My main thing is needing a wall that's about 7-8' tall, it's easy enough to find things to vault.

Heh, after I did a cat grab a kid, maybe ~11 yrs old, came up and said "That must not be very hard". I wasn't sure whether to laugh or be offended*, but the teacher was just like "Wanna try it?" and helped the kid out for a couple minutes. The group got a lot of stares from passerbys and a few people coming up to ask what we were doing - I suppose people running at immobile objects does look a little odd. They're totally open to anyone joining, if you're interested.

I got some booboos but they're all minor, and I'm actually kinda proud of my scrapes. I'm super excited about going back next week!

Side concern - I've had a nasty twinge in my left back/shoulder for around a week now. Sometimes it hurts when I breathe or lay down, along with random motions. It's kinda in between my shoulder blade and my spine. I might have pulled something during archery, but there was no sharp pain at the time, pulling a bow just now didn't hit it, and it seems like it should be healed by now anyways. Ideas?

*That reminds me of a really stupid thing that a guy at our gay store said. I was asking him how much a pair of bracers cost and he goes, "How did you know they were called bracers?"
Me: "Um, I don't know. I don't particularly remember learning it."
Lefty (after we shared a perplexed look): "That's just what they're called."
Guy: "Yeah, but you're a girl."
Me: *did not punch him in the face*
Well whatever. I can climb over a wall and I bet he couldn't. So there.




Parkour injury tally (for my own records) - first my butt hurt from vaulting, then I fell off the wall onto my ass, and scraped up my forearms+hands+lower legs from the wall (none required a bandage). Left elbow and wrist twinging, to the point that picking things up hurt and I couldn't lean on my forearms without mild pain. Upon waking elbow was improved, wrist still sore down the center, may have pulled something. Today in descending order of soreness - butt, hips, quads (esp rt), triceps, back, lats/pits, forearms, everything else. Knees are a little tender but surprisingly painless. Tai chi and Bollywood were difficult but became easier, sitting increases stiffness (pain is all good muscle pain, no strains). DOMS probably worse because I didn't eat enough yesterday, tried to make up for it today.

My totally kickass fangirl friend Lefty will be visiting me this week from the far away lands of the Midwest. You all want to meet her. We're gonna hit Vertex on Thursday, so get your butts out there!

Kendall, this would be the perfect time to show up with that candy. Unless you've already given up and eaten it. ;)

Lance, commence drooling now.
http://azmal.deviantart.com/gallery/
http://www.princearmory.com

Ok, so I was already allergic to peas and lentils. Now I'm apparently allergic to Wegmans Organic chicken breast. Not all chicken, just Wegmans Organic.
Baffling.

Nooooo! The Monday pole-dancing class is already full! I didn't sign up yet because I wanted to be sure I could get off work. This is terrible news! I can still take the Tuesday one BUT I was going to take the beginner adult gymnastics class on Tuesdays starting at the end of June! They overlap, I can't take both! Whyyyy cruel world?

All I ever wanted was to be Batman. A Batman who poledances. IS THAT SO MUCH TO ASK??

::sobs::

On average, how much would you guess you spend daily on food? Cause I seem to be spending way too damn much. :( I think of the last $550 I've spent, about $400 went to Wegmans. Damn you Wegmans!



I'm sorry Wegmans. I didn't mean it. Please forgive me baby!

Eeeeee! Rochester finally got a pole dancing class! I'm so excited! http://www.goddesshour.com
Although I apparently need to buy some heels. o_0 Um, anyone have any 8.5 heels they don't want anymore?

This whole 'one day off in 21 days' thing really needs to stop.

Do you want to watch Rachel bounce around like a crazy person and make a complete fool of herself? Of course you do!

My Bollywood class is performing in a show at the India Community Center. It's a whole musical, with dialogue in English and Indian pop songs and lots of dancing. I'm in the finale/encore, so just 2.5 minutes at the very end. If you want to come, let me know ASAP so I can get a chunk of tickets seated together. I think it'll make it easier for me to grin like an idiot if I know that friends, not just strangers, are laughing at me.

We'll also be performing our dance (not the whole musical) at the Memorial Art Gallery on May 31st. http://mag.rochester.edu/calendar/?event&id=441496 I think we'll be on around 3pm, I can let you know details for sure if you're interested.





BOLLYWOOD DANCE MANIA
Presents
RANG MANCH - COLORS OF INDIA
on
Saturday, June 6th, 2009 at 7:30 PM
Center Stage at India Community Center
2171 Monroe County Line Road, Macedon, NY 14502-9001

A young girl’s quest to discover a land of varied cultures and hidden mysteries – India

Come experience true Indian hospitality, with a delicious dinner & enjoy this enticing Bollywood style dance drama!

/me bounces around work, all hyper and excited
Me: Shannon Shannon guess what??

S: What?

Me: I saw Wolverine today!

S: You saw wolverines?!? I didn't think they had those in upstate NY!

Me: blinks I...what? You're fucking with me right?

S: Um...

Me: Wolverine: Origin. The comic movie.

S: Oh right. Well you know what I did that was really exciting?

Me: ...?

S: I saw a bunny while I was running today! It was huge!

Well my Bellydance and Bollywood classes ended this week, and no Ballroom Dancing because Daddy's gone. :'( No dancing? Do not want!

I should be sensible and just take the gym classes since those're free...but they're also boring and overcrowded and not fun. Not fuuuuun. So I'll sign up for the next Bollywood class! Woo! And I was going to sign up for the next Bellydance*, but then I blithely agreed to perform in a show (May 31 and June 6) with my Bolly teacher, not quite realizing what that would entail. I will certainly need to buy a costume, and we'll have practice sessions (free), and if we want to do the whole song we need to learn more moves (not free). I cannot afford to do it all! Nor do I have time, because coordinating 2 jobs and 4 dance classes = NO. I think we won't be learning the extra moves, but if the other people in the class are up for it, do I want more Bolly or more Belly? Choices! I hate them! I'm leaning towards more Bolly because I look forward to that class more than the Belly, and I'm not sure I can get that everywhere whereas pretty much everywhere has Belly classes these days. And I think the Belly would be more repetitive than the Bolly (because you have to take 3 level 1 classes before you can move to Level 2, so there'll be a new song+choreography but the same basic moves).

I would like, at this juncture, to point out that signing up for these classes is a commitment. This will be the second time in a row I've made a 2-month commitment to be in the same place! I'm not sure if that's a breakthrough or a bad sign. It's something though. And it makes me feel way dumb for not signing on to MA instead, except then I wouldn't have the RAC job (which, despite some recent drama, is still mostly enjoyable. If GNC was a TV show it'd be a sitcom, if RAC was a TV show it'd be a Very Catty reality show), and I wouldn't have taken these dance classes. So...life. Yeah. I need to stop yoyoing between wishing I'd never been born and wishing I could have Bartish scouts so I could live every possible Choose Your Own Adventure choice.

Anyways! About that *!
*( A story involving bondage, bellydancing, and my ex. But not all at the same time. )

Ok, I'm leaving for my trip tomorrow morning. I'll be in LA from 14th-16th, 17th-19th is the cruise to Ensenada (which I'm gonna go out on a limb and count as visiting Mexico), then back to LA, and I return home on the 21st. Will Rachel and her dad decide what to do in Ensenada before the ship leaves the port? Place your bets now! Internet will be spotty at best so if you need to contact me, call my cell. Unless it's the 17th-19th, in which case you're just shit outta luck and you need to wait until I'm back in the country.
Bye!

Me: Ok, so if Batman isn't who they're implying it is, who else could it be? I've been wracking my brain and I can't think of anyone who really makes sense. Maybe it's like, Ace turned into a human.

Lefty: Maybe it's Jimmy Olson! Or, ok, who else in Gotham could it be...maybe a cop, were there any cops other than Jim who had a connection to Batman?

Me: Harvey Bullock?

Lefty: Yes. Harvey chomping a cigar under the cowl. He is the Goddamn Batman.

Me: Maybe it's Titans Tomorrow Tim. Or Kon!

Lefty: It's David Bowie!

Ya know what one of the worst things about being sick so often is? The fact that everytime I'm sick (or fall down the stairs or whatever), it means that I can't work out, and I'm not eating enough, and all my body's resources are taking things away from my muscles and towards fixing whatever's wrong. So when I finally do work out, I feel totally pathetic and I have to start all over again.
Slowest. Progress. Ever.
::lies gasping on the floor after three Surya Namaskara B's::